cleaning houses

[Carrie772]

I am thinking of cleaning houses while baby is in pre-school and was just wondering if anyone else does this? How much do I charge per hour? I love to clean and I am good at it so I thought this would work for me.
I do have a teaching degree but am in no shape (or desire) to teach anytime soon.
Anyone?

 

[spima3]

I don't clean houses, but MIL does, as does our old Daycare provider. (She makes far more $ cleaning houses than watching kids.)

A lot would depend on your area, but my MIL charges by the home and what is expected. THe larger and more involved, the more she charges.

She tended to earn between $25 and $50 per house. On the larger homes, the $50 ones, she and a friend would clean it together and split the $50. That way it wouldn't take up a big portion of her day. MIL is like the superman of cleaning, she is exhausting to watch, so she usually only takes about two hours per home.

Hope that helps.

lori

 

[bjakmom]

I cleaned houses & offices about 20 years ago when I was a single mom - I was earning about $20 an hour back then. I much preferred doing offices - I had keys to the offices and all weekend to get them done - lots of flexibility - and on the few occasions when my girls were sick or I didn't have anyone to watch them, they could come to the office with me and play in the lobby area while I worked. It was a great way to supplement my income - I always called it my 'workout' because it is very physical work when you are working full speed! My DD just picked up cleaning a house on her day off for a friend who pays $80. - takes her just under 3 hours. We live in a tourist area and my DDs and their friends have had summer jobs cleaning 'turn over' rentals on the weekends - always made about $10-$15 an hour working for someone else who booked the jobs and supervised. Good luck!

 

[KelNottAt]

I'm not a cleaning lady, but I do use one. And, I agree, it's usually not an hourly wage.

My service charges by the room. Such as, $4 for the dining room we seldom use, $12 for the busy kitchen, $8 for a full bath, less for a half bath, etc. (Those aren't the real prices, just examples I made up.)

Also, we can pick and choose other jobs and add them on the order a al carte. (Change the sheets, water the plants, windex this but not that, etc.)

I use a franchise cleaning service, so they're probably a little more expensive than a self-employed person. Why not call a few franchises in your area (Merry Maids, The Cleaning Authority, etc.) and ask them to come out and do a free estimate for what they'd charge to clean your home. That way you'd have some ball park ideas about what to include, exclude, and charge.

 

[tedhowe]

We have a cleaning lady come one every other week.

Our house is 4BR, 2.5Bath with living room, dining room, family room and kitchen on the 1st floor.

Our cleaning lady does floors and dusting throughout, counters, cooktop, and sink in the kitchen, clean the sink, shower/bath and toilets in the bathrooms. She doesn't do windows

She also changes the sheets on the beds if we leave out fresh linens for them. Of the 4BR, only 2 take much cleaning since our daughters sleep in the same room (1BR is their play room, the 4th BR is a guest room that is only used about 2 or 3 times a year).

For this service we pay $85 - and I believe it takes her between 2 and 3 hours.

Ted

 

[DisneyMomx7]

We have a husband and wife couple that cleans our house. It takes them about two hours. The house consists of 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms LR, DR, FR, breakfast room and kitchen. They dust, vacuum, clean the floors, clean down the appliances and sink, wash the front door glass and the sliding glass doors, clean the bathrooms etc. They are really reasonable - I provide the cleaning products and they charge $60!

 

[kileybeth]

OMG!!! this must totally depend on where you live, services offered and size of house.

I have a big house but just to get the floors, bathrooms, and dusting done in about 2 hours time w/ 3-4 cleaners coming all at once it is close to $200 for the service. I don't do this often for just this reason.

anyone want to come clean for me for less?? I am also one of those "clean before you come to clean" kind of people too!

so, before you sell yourself short or offer your services call a few companies and do some comparison shopping type thing would be my advice.

this past summer when my family went away for an extrended time, I "hired" a friend who really wanted to do this for me (and needed the money) and I fully trusted. I left a list of what needed to be done.

when I returned, the house was clean (not so polished looking as with professionals but clean). I thought it was well worth it for me and friend until she told me she had been in my home everyday we were away working on it for several hours each day!!!! I was away over 2 weeks!!!! She said she wouldn't do it again it was just to much work and time??? I really couldn't see what had taken her all that time but I know her so well and she is very similar to me in cleaning style so I believed she actually did clean all that time!

I mean, I know it was dirty and it helps me understand why I can't seem to keep it "clean clean" by myself for any amount of time! LOL

yikes.

 

[julie682000]

I clean houses about 2-3 days a week. I make great money, it is hard work but worth it! I start out charging $15.00 to get a general price. So say it takes me 4 hours, I would charge $60.00 but I would use this as my fee from then on. So everytime I came I would charge $60.00. Once I have cleaning the house a few times it will take me much less time. So I could get about $30.00 an hour. Make sure you make it clear that the fee will be the same each time. Some people will figure if it only takes you 2 hours after a while, then they should only pay $30.00. If you have any more questions let me know. Today I cleaned from 9am to about 2 pm and made about $170.00. Not bad I couldn't do it everyday because I am beat by the end of the day!

 

[Carrie772]

Thanks so much to you all that responded, and sorry to you all too as I never received an email notice about any responses. Weird.

Anyway, I am going with the $15 an hour rate here in Alabama. Huntsvillians are pretty affluent and I can definately clean a 3200 sq.ft. home in 4 hours. That's with straightening. I am really excited.

A friend of mine is going to hire me for every other week. That will more than pay for the dining plan!!

 

[zumbergc]

We've paid differing amounts for different service providers.

The franchise corp, merry maids, molly maid cost a fortune and for us didn't do that great of a job.

When we were in an apartment, we were paying like 75-85- 120 towards the end of living there, and they were in and out so quick and didn't do a great job.

Fast forward, now in a house. We priced a couple big name places, they wanted over $200 or more to do the house, and i thought that was way to much, so we resisted.

We found an indepent person who was looking to do this part time, she did a great job meticulous, english not very good. Caused an issues, because I became allergic to some things, and couldn't tell her what, since her english was bad and my spanish is bad.

We tried another, smaller company, bad idea, they were like $125 had like 4-5 people in teh house, out like in an hour. However, they didn't listen to the fact I had allergies. So, we used them once, never again.

We are now using a lady who does house cleaning part time, she has 2 kids, she does a great job. She prices by number of rooms. Like $ per type of room, per type of requests, like making beds, changing linens costs x amount.

We have her do the house except the upstairs loft every week, then every other week the loft upstairs. Just because we hardly go up there. So if she does upstairs it costs more that week.

 

[jessica52877]

I have done this in the past, great money!

I did a business apt for $45, took about 3 hours. Also took home a load of sheets and did them. 2 BR/2 Bath. They were pretty sloppy in the kitchen but still wasn't bad. I would run the dishwasher, wash out coffee pot and more little things I wouldn't normally do at a house.

Also did a house, $60 every other week. 2 dogs, 2 kids. 3 BR / 3 1/2 bath, living, dining, den, etc. Swept, dusted, picked up, bathrooms from top to bottom, changed sheets. Wiped off counters. Around 3-4 hours.

One more house, similar and got $50 I think. They had no kids, only cats and only one bedroom and bath was ever dirty, the others took a light dusting. They were happy to work around my hours too.

 

[mickeyluv'r]

With all due respect, before I took ona job like this, I'd call your insurance company. You just never know with a private job like this when somethig could go wrong. You could be sued and could lose much of what you own. some homeowner's policies will protect yoy somewhat to begin with, others you could probaly add onto whatever coverage you already have.

Keep in mind too, come tax time, if you make over a certain amount, then your mileage might be deductable. It's worht keeping track of it. It's also a good idea to keep track of the mileage when figuring out what to charge clients - or which clients are worth taking.

 

[TnTWalter]

She charged me only $55 said it was normally $65 but if I picked a day when she cleaned in the neighborhood she'd charge $55. I called a few neighbors trying to find her but never did. I gave her $60...she was here for 4 hours. It was well worth the price for that time. That was cheap...I got quotes from companies of $100-$120. 2400 square feet 4 bedroom 2.5 bath.

Trish

forgot to say she used my supplies but her own rags and paper towels.

 

[mlwear]

I don't think these have been mentioned...here it costs less to have your house cleaned every week rather than every other week. Ex. $90/week vs.
$110/every two weeks. I think that is understandable. At least one compnay, does a detailed cleaning for the first visit, which is pretty pricey and then gives the estimate for routine cleaning. I think that is pretty clever as they get a decent idea of what the workload will be for a particular home and family. Plus, the detailed cleaning gives them a good start to begin routine service.
Good luck!

 

[ckoncurat]

I have a cleaning lady who comes in every other week and JUST does kitchen and baths (at my request- its all I can afford). She charges $30hr- $60a visit.

 

[tinatark]

From a consumer's prospective, there is good$ to be made there. Do call around and see what other services in your area charge.

The biggest thing I look for is for someone to clean my house as if it were theirs. If you see something that needs to be done, do it!

We had the queen of all house cleaners, Ella, for about 3 years, until she retired earlier this year. We are on our 4th since she left - about 6 months ago. The ones now do an okay job, but no one will ever do it like she did.

We pay $75 now for 2 ladies, they're here about 3 hours.

 

[PatriciaH]

With all due respect, before I took ona job like this, I'd call your insurance company. You just never know with a private job like this when somethig could go wrong. You could be sued and could lose much of what you own. some homeowner's policies will protect yoy somewhat to begin with, others you could probaly add onto whatever coverage you already have.

Good advice! We used to do pet-sitting (insured, licensed, etc..) and after 5 years of no issues ran into some very nutty people so have stepped back from it. My dad worked for the phone company for many years and had to go into people's homes to install lines and phones. You would not believe what people would try to pull with them and accuse them of!

 

[Toby'sFriend]

oh I would so hire somebody for $15 an hour and I would even promise to never ever sue you. I'd even let you have your choice of beverages from my fridge.

 

[rmjkharrisfam]

Wow - $15 an hour!! I'd love that rate!

My cleaning service charges $23/hour. I have them come in 4 hrs twice a month and they clean the entire house. Coming home to a clean house is my favorite time of the month

 

[neatokimmo]

This blows my mind. If they work 40 hours a week, 50 weeks a year that is $46,000 a year.

I was going to get someone to help out when the baby came. I was going to offer the going rate for retail, which in my head is comparable. No degree needed (not meant to offend anyone, just my thought process) for either type of job.

But then I read posts like this....I'm not going to pay her more than I make Please tell me you are in a big city!

Wow - $15 an hour!! I'd love that rate!

My cleaning service charges $23/hour. I have them come in 4 hrs twice a month and they clean the entire house. Coming home to a clean house is my favorite time of the month